Nipping psychopathy in the bud: an examination of the convergent, predictive, and theoretical utility of the PCL‐YV among adolescent girls

Abstract

Over the last decade rates of violence among adolescent girls have increased. Within high‐risk contexts, urgent calls for assessment options have resulted in the extension of adult and male‐based instruments to adolescent females in spite of the absence of strong empirical support. The current study evaluates the downward extension of psychopathy within a population of female juvenile offenders (N = 125). The convergent and predictive validity of the Psychopathy Checklist—Youth Version (PCL‐YV) were evaluated within a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. Results indicated that while a specific component of psychopathy, deficient affective experience, was related to aggression, the effect was negated once victimization experiences were entered into the models. In addition, PCL‐YV scores were not predictive of future offending, while victimization experiences significantly increased the odds of re‐offending. Implications for research, policy, and clinical practice are discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.